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Topic: the mites are here (Read 2729 times)

i got 4 new hives this year. one of the hives was not doin to good. less then a half of frame of comb so far this year. so i did the news paper method on it. it work all of the bees went into the other hive.now i took out the frame and look at it real close. the was a queen cell on it . i broke it open and there they were. 2 mites on the larvae. this was a new pack of bees from this year. what to do now .helpppp :(

First, make a foundation, where is 1/3 from lower part away. Bees build there drone cells. When drone larvas are capped, about 50% of mites go on drones. So you see how many they are. And so you cut away drone cells.

There is problem with you hive, why it want to change the queen. Is it swarming or does queen have some problem?

Lee, you could do a drop test check for mites (a little tray that slides into the hive and sits on the bottom board). You know you have them, it's a matter of how many. A few is not a huge problem. You could certainly plan to medicate in the fall, but with a new hive, you won't be taking any honey off anyway, I suppose, if you do a check and have a large number, you could medicate now.

To test for mites you could also make a "mite shaker". All you have to do is get a few tbs. of powdered sugar and put it in a jar. Get about 100 bees into the jar and shake it vigerously. Finnally, wait a few minutes cause the bees will be EXTREAMLY annoyed then dump the contents with the bees onto a sheet of wax paper. The bees will fly away, a little disoriented, and most of the mites that were on them will have been shaken off and can be easily seen against the white wax paper and powdered sugar.

In a hive thatâ€™s week you will not be putting on supers so treat them. You can't afford to loose a jar full of bees to do an either roll. So just treat them. I use sucrocide on any bees that don't have brood. If you treat a swarm or package before you hive them with sucrocide you can nock the mites down so they can get a good start. I only treat the bees not the queen. :lol:

i got 4 new hives this year. one of the hives was not doin to good. less then a half of frame of comb so far this year. so i did the news paper method on it. :(

What you mean? Not good brood area? Chalk brood is mostly reason for bad brood area. Bad mite problems are seen in emerged bees.

If you have chalk brood, first thing is to change the queen.

If hive want to raise queen cell, it means that queen has something wrong. They change it sooner or later. Nosema is one reason for bad condition of queen. Get a new egg laying queen so you get winter bees.